Another junior high teacher accused of molesting female student

By Jennifer Squires - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 07/16/2010

APTOS - A 13-year-old girl says she had a sexual relationship with her math teacher at Aptos Junior High School and detectives are worried other students may have been victimized, the Sheriff's Office reported Friday.

The teacher, Steven Jay Sande, 60, was arrested Friday when sex crimes detectives served a search warrant at his Santa Cruz home, according to Sgt. Todd Liberty.Sande is suspected of having an ongoing sexual relationship with the girl, who was one of his students, during the spring and summer. They had sexual contact on campus, which is on Huntington Drive in Aptos, Liberty said. He said the two also "would go to secluded spots" in the Aptos area to be intimate. The contact continued into the summer, deputies reported.

The girl's parents discovered the alleged inappropriate relationship in July, according to the Sheriff's Office."They became suspicious based on unusual behavior at home," Liberty said.Deputies searched Sande's house, on Esmeralda Court in the Carbonera Estates neighborhood, Friday morning. They seized possible evidence, including computers, but have yet to sift through all of the items.

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